GRAND RAPIDS, MI – During ArtPrize 2012, Leslie Narsisian often would keep one eye on her watch and the other on the lookout for parking enforcement. Sometimes, she had to flee her falafel cart to feed coins into an on-street meter before she got ticketed.

Today, there’s no such worry for Narsisian since there are no coins necessary for the meter where she parked on Ottawa Avenue NW, and there is no uncertainty about the amount of time left on the meter.

She has a receipt with a printed expiration time and a credit card ready to swipe when the minutes run low.

“I don’t have to carry $10 worth of quarters,” said Narsisian, who runs The Pita Pitstop near the Grand Rapids Art Museum. “I also don’t have to remember what time. I’m going to have to come back (later this afternoon), but at least it’s printed on a piece of paper. I don’t have to look at my watch and figure it out.

“These new credit card parking machines are going to make my life a lot less stressful.”

Grand Rapids has started a 90-day trial of two multi-space meters on Ottawa, between Monroe Center and Louis Street NW. The solar-powered devices enable motorists to pay for their parking with dollars, coins or credit cards and get a printed receipt with an expiration time.

Next month, the city will install similar devices on the north side of Monroe Center, on either side of Ottawa. The 22 individual parking meter heads will be capable of taking credit card payments in another 90-day test.

The two new meters on Ottawa take payment for nine parking spaces on the west side of the street. Customers punch in the number of their parking space, select a certain amount of time based at $1.75 per hour, pay for the time and get a receipt.

Some customers using the new meters Wednesday, Sept. 18, found them convenient, though more time consuming than traditional meters.

“To just plug in $4 worth of quarters would have been faster,” said Patrick Collins, a Chicago man who had some trouble inserting dollar bills into the machine.

Still, Collins, who’s in town for ArtPrize, said the meters “guide you through it step by step” in a more intuitive way than similar meters he has used in Chicago. And he didn’t have to have $4 of quarters.

Ryan Hayes, who was downtown with his grandparents to check out ArtPrize, had to swipe his credit card a few times before the machine read it.

“There’s a couple more steps, but you get the receipt,” said Hayes, whose wife has an ArtPrize entry at Bistro Bella Vita. “I guess it’s a tradeoff.”